Smoking weed can leave you asking important questions about the universe like, where did I put that bag of chips? Or even, should I get more chips? Indeed, getting stoned can even make a video about the Earth being flat seem credible.
Scarily, the biological mechanism that triggers this befuddlement and naivety in stoners has actually been identified in a recent study, which should be a major warning to heavy cannabis users – if they can remember it.
Anyone who has sampled some of the ‘devil’s lettuce’ will know that memories can seem fuzzy and hard to reach when you are high, with forgetfulness about as common as getting the munchies and red eyes.
But a rigorous new study into the acute affects of cannabis on memory came to the shocking conclusion that smoking weed does not just make it harder to remember where you put the TV remote, it may actually be distorting your memory and even create false recollections.
If you’ve just hit a bong and can’t find something, the two might be related (Getty Stock Image)
In order to explore how one of cannabis’ most well-known hazy effects, researchers carried out a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 120 individuals who were split into three groups.
Participants were each given a vape, the first group were given a placebo, the second vaped a moderate 20mg dosage of THC, the psychoactive compound in weed responsible for making you feel stoned. A third group was given a high 40mg dose of the euphoric chemical.
They were then put through their paces with a number of memory tests.
Each individual was assessed on: their verbal memory, how they store information spoken to them; their visuospatial memory, how they are able to orient themselves or an object in their mind; their memory when prompted to recall by an object; and their ability to remember things in an order.
To understand their findings, it is important to both breakdown what THC does and how our brain stores information as a memory, as well as how it is later recalled.
Stoned and can’t remember where you put that thing? It’s because THC is flooding your cannabinoid receptors (Getty Stock Image)
Firstly, the naturally-occurring chemical THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, is able to invoke a euphoric feeling in stoners as a result of the endocannabinoid system that all human beings have from birth, responsible for regulating everything from your mood to sleep and memory.
When you get high, whether that is using edibles, bongs, vapes, or blunts, THC floods these endocannabinoid receptors and interferes with how it functions in all of these critical biological functions.
While this is partly why cannabis is effective as a low-medium painkiller for people living with chronic conditions like arthritis, it is also why stoners experience memory through a thick haze.
To be reductive, cognitive scientists would say that the process of memory takes place in three phases: encoding, which is how your brain receives the information; consolidation, where the information is processed and stored; and retrieval, how it is accessed at a later time.
All of our senses and emotions play a part in how this memory is stored, with the hippocampus converting the information into part of the memory for later recall. The endocannabinoid system is how this information is transferred in each of the three phases.
Becoming forgetful is a common side effect of getting high, researchers now know why (Getty Stock Image)
Co-author of the study Carrie Cuttler, Washington State University’s associate professor and director of the Health and Cognition Lab, said: “You are activating certain pathways to create a memory and to recall something, you are trying to reactivate that same pathway.”
The impact that drug use has on these three phases of memory storage requires further study, but in people high on cannabis, the endocannabinoid receptors responsible for each phase are lit up like a Christmas tree.
“If you blast the system with THC, the THC hijacks the system,” Cuttler explained.
After putting the study’s 120 participants through 21 different memory tests to establish how each dose was impacting their ability to store and recall information, roughly 70 percent of those given THC experienced some form of memory impairment.
But the largest impact noticed by the researchers was in two concerning areas, false memory and source memory. Participants struggled to figure out where remembered information came from, and even recalled false information.
The memory impact is most noticeable in people who get high by smoking or vaping, rather than by THC edibles (Getty Stock Image)
The researchers argued that their findings showed that THC damaged a person’s ability to recall fine details in their memories, even though the memory remained familiar. This leads to false recall, with your brain filling in the gaps with its best guesses.
Participants given a THC vape experienced this false recall twice as much as those in the placebo group. Which would explain why stoners typically love a conspiracy theory, or a two-hour YouTube video about how Bigfoot is real.
However, while this new research offers a fascinating insight into an under-researched but common drug response, it should be noted that most memory issues can be fixed with four-weeks of weed abstinence.
And furthermore, being a heavy alcohol drinker is far worse for your memory than the occasional bong or blunt. Cuttler said: “Acute alcohol intoxication is generally more disruptive to memory than cannabis.”
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image
